Something To Remember - Open Day '11

| Posted in , , , , , , , , | Posted on 11:58 PM

1


The ladies. And me. And my guitar.

  Howdy, people? Last week was crazy. This week's been too, so far.
  Last Saturday, on 23rd July, our school had its Open Day. Young kids' projects and charts, among a multitude of other things, were showcased. The students' parents came and saw what their kids had been doing, and... Hey, wait. That's just random shit. The musicians of the school got to play openly too, and that's what concerned me the most.
  We played and we played - and we played till we weren't allowed to anymore, because Open Day '11 was over. That was the worst part. It got over. If we weren't bound by time restrictions, we could've easily continued for an hour or two - even after playing for over an hour. 
  Up there in the picture, there's Nilanjana, Remya and me. These ladies, along with Gautami (who's also a chick) sang the vocals for Sweet Child O' Mine (because hey! Who the hell can sing like Axl?) and the literally harmonized the crap out of that song. It's so great having these chicks try so much for something the musicians can't really do much about - the vocals. They're awesome, they're awesome. And so was their rendition of Sweet Child O' Mine.
  The rest of the band's great too. There's this really sweet synergy between me and the bassist (Gandharva), and him and the drummer (Ehtesham/Ronit). Heck, the whole band is synergistic. Anish plays rhythm guitar, I play lead, and Atish plays keyboards (yes, plural. He's often playing two at a time); he also does the vocals for the chorus of Comfortably Numb, as does Gandharva, and I do the verse vocals (and yeah, Gandharva helps me there too, I'm not much of a singer).
  Nilanjana took a few of the pictures (except the ones she's in; I don't know who took those), and Remya clicked a bunch of photos too
 {For photo credits: [N] - Nilanjana; [R] - Remya}. 
 So yeah, we begun with Sweet Child O' Mine:

'Whoooaaa!!!' I can't sing that without my voice cracking. These chicks can. 

There's something just so bloody beautiful about singing with closed eyes.
  And then the little kiddos took over the stage and played medleys and everything with an orchestra and whatnot, so we head over to the foyer and practiced songs on our acoustic guitars.

We played, 'Wish You Were Here'
 [N]

And Remya sung with us...
 [N]

...As the whole band listened in
  And our guitars were perpendicular to each other...

Perpendicular.
[N]
 And then we took the stage for another set of songs, another set of melodies and emotions. Remya sung a few solo songs (Everything I Do, Wish You Were Here) and then we played a few songs too - some we were adept at, others improvised. We played Hotel California (I improvised a bit of the solo, I hadn't practiced it in eons), Slither, Enter Sandman, a few hindi songs - Socha Hai, Tum Ho Toh. There were also so many songs we couldn't play because of lack of time: The Trooper, Knocking On Heaven's Door, Volcano, Yellow... but that's okay; we made as much as we could of the time given to us.
 We were joined by Varidh and Utkarsh in Hotel California and Slither, and the latter sung I Have A Dream too, with an accompanying keyboardist.
 We had some radical amount of fun that day, an indecent amount of it in a certainly decent exposure. Even as we ended with our last song Comfortably Numb - yes, it was requested to be played again, just like Sweet Child O' Mine - we just knew we wouldn't possibly have anything of the sort ever in our life again. I could go on about how great it felt - how mind-numbing the songs felt, how great the solo was - but I wouldn't. Some things are better left unsaid. And what words don't express, pictures do. So this one's going to be me sharing what's imprinted on my mind - in a way you can see it too.


Playing Sweet Child O' Mine. Look at me having convulsions. So cool.
  
Ending Sweet Child O' Mine... 
[N]
Playing Hotel California... (singer: Varidh)
[N]
Gandharva and me doing the vocals for Comfortably Numb...
[R]
The Comfortably Numb guitar solo...
[R]

  And hey - it's not like we spent all our time playing (no, not that any of us would've had any issues against doing so) - and so here's a bunch of pictures where we're just acting how we usually act: random.


Nil. Rem.
Anish. Rem. Zoya(Uninformed Groupie).
[N]
Ehtesham. Nilanjana. Unidentified Paunch.
Atish. Ehtesham. Remya.
[N]
Flabbergasted Anish. Scrutinizing Rem.
[N]
Ehtesham.
[N]
Atish. Gandharva. Me.
[N]
Nil. Anish. Rem. (All Horny)
Zoya. (Not Horny)
Little Kid with Anish's Guitar. Ehtesham.
[N]
Anish (hiding, for some reason). Remya.
[N]
Nilanjana.
[R]
Rem. Me.
[N]
  That pretty much covers the whole of Open Day '11, unless you were there, of course; in which case it doesn't do so much as give a peek of what had actually happened. It is often said that we don't remember days, just moments, and so this is what it has been so far - moments. Just moments. Because that's all a picture can capture - a moment; the memory remains ours forever to relive.

X-x-X

SPECIAL EXTENDED FEATURETTE:
MEET THE BAND!
(And the featured vocalists!)

(!) Ehtesham Shareef (Drummer/Keyboardist - Sweet Child O' Mine)

[N]
[R]

(!!) Atish Majumdar (Keyboardist/Vocalist)

His hand. His keys.
[R]
[R]
(!!!) Anish Majumdar (Rhythm Guitarist)

[N]
Yeah... he's kind of like that...
[N]
(!V) Gandharva Sati (Bassist/Backing Vocalist)

[N]
[R]
(V) Ronit Roy (Drummer - Sweet Child O' Mine)

[N]
He tries not to look like this.
[N]

(V!) Srimanta Mitra (Lead Guitarist/Backing Vocals - Comfortably Numb)

[R]
[N]
Featured Vocalists!


(!) Remya Raj

[N]
(!!) Nilanjana Bhattacharjee

[R]
(!!!) Gautami Reddy

She's probably taller than both Nilanjana and Remya put together.
(!V) Utkarsh Srivastava

[R]
(V) Vidya Varidh

[R]

  That's just about it fellas! Hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures (and reading what is written, if you cared enough). And. Hope you like music - no matter what type, style, genre - and that somewhere, somehow, we're able to affect you with what we have to contribute. Here's me signing off again. 
  And oh, I'd like to end with this one picture Nilanjana took of me, because we're all as much retards as we are human - and it's just more apparent on some people than on others. And also because Nilanjana is a freaking great photographer.
  Here:

Thanks, sis.

 Adios, folks.
X-x-X

A Flower For Your Grave

| Posted in , , , , | Posted on 11:53 PM

1

The rain fell easy on you,
Slow, smooth, calm
And you sat with your face
Buried deep in your hands,
And with a heavy heart, scarred
Not until very recently

Life was all about walking alone,
You'd heard,
But you had not known
How true it was till
That was the only thing you could do

A hidden tear slid from your eye
And ran down your pellucid face, covertly
As you sighed dismissively...
There it was again,
The inevitable regret of loss;
But you let it stay, and so it sunk
Deep inside you;
But you didn't let yourself drown
Till someone brought you
A flower for your grave...


X-x-X

Musical Medication

| Posted in , , , , , , , , | Posted on 11:47 PM

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  Life is a brutal, brutal bitch. And it kills me every time I have to think of going through it without something sacred, something soothing, something numbing, something... Heck, I'll just cut all the crap, right now. I might be in a mood to write like that, but I have a chemistry unit tomorrow; and I'm pretty sure I won't be scoring any good, so yeah, whatever. Screw it.
  So yes, life gives you lots of lemons (going by the multitude of quotes that revolve around the very idea), happiness, sadness and pain. And when you're feeling diseased - technically, it just means, to be not at ease - life's always kind enough to throw you tons of musical medication: if only you accept it.
  I've discovered tons of great music recently, and because I love sharing awesome stuff I've discovered (and also because teens these days have a despicable taste when it comes to music; and I mean that in the most scrutinizing way possible), I'll be posting some it here. Awesomeness, right? Music is awesome. Awesome music is awesomer. I'm abusing the word awesome too. How awesome is that? 
  Oh, oh, oh, this is also due because it'd be a sin to not be sharing music this good. Really.
  Eh. I'm not good with self obsession anyway; once I saw the phone of this one girl, and its wallpaper was a picture of herself, and I thought, 'Man, if I had to look at myself that often, I'd just die.' (No offence related to these girls, by the way; I do things that might freak them out too [like using square brackets inside regular brackets]).
  So yeah, none of that self-obsessed crap with me. I hate myself, for the most part, anyway.
  Okay. So here - like I said - awesome music. And I've posted most of the videos with lyrics, because they just are that bloody awesome too. 


  Norah Jones
  
  Come Away With Me
  
  
  What Am I To You?
  
  Cold, Cold Heart



   Sinkin' Soon

  
  Damien Rice
  His band features a cellist and a totally freakin' awesome female vocalist, too. Her name is Lisa Hannigan, and her voice is so bloody good if I were a voice I'd totally be unconditionally infatuated with her.


  The Blower's Daughter



   
   Cannonball



    9 Crimes



  Volcano

   
  That should keep you busy for a while. Me too.
  I had to restrict myself to only 4 songs per artist because I thought 5 would be too much for inexperienced ears to handle. I mean, seriously, that'll be a lot of eargasms; it takes experience to handle just one at a time.
  Besides, there's plenty more. Porcupine Tree, more Radiohead, more Coldplay (re-discovery, this), and a lot more. I mostly have my friends to thank for, for all this. They're really awesome too.
  There is also freaking tons I have to write still. And hopefully, I will, once I get to breathe; science isn't letting me.
  Sigh.
  Anyway.
  Gotta go study. Or sleep. Or maybe listen to more music.
  
  Adios, hombres.

Under The Mistletoe [Fiction 55]

| Posted in , , , , | Posted on 11:25 PM

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A grave silence binds, 
Holding its breath... 

 Darkness descends subtly,
Settling, with suppressed ease 

Bulbs flicker,
Candles waver,
As wood turns to fire

A glint of hope disappears, 
Vanishes; like a word spoken too soft

And the mistletoe hangs in silence...

Last night, there was no one
Under the mistletoe


X-x-X

14th Fiction 55

Overdosing Again

| Posted in , , , , , , , | Posted on 11:57 AM

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  The past few weeks have been fucking crazy. Really crazy. And not in a 'I had sex with 5 chicks in 3 days' way.
  I don't think I'm in that place where I 'hate' science anymore. I've started accepting it's something I have to live with for the next 2 years of my life (if not more). What I don't like about it is that it takes up too much of my time, and I still don't get results. It's probably understandable, the fact that I have to keep convincing myself I belong somewhere far away from the harrowing corridors of Vidyamandir, that I'm much more than an another run-of-the-mill science student. Let's just hope it's true for now, 'cause if it isn't, living life's going to get a hell of a lot tougher; as if it isn't enough, already.
  I recently got a rather copious dose of inspiration from a rather pretty lady I hadn't ever met before in my life, but I'll get to that in a while.
  Sigh.
  Moving on to greener pastures, I've started playing guitar more frequently now. The other day, I went and jammed with the school people in the zero-period; it wasn't anything great, but good enough. Since then, we've started playing more regularly (pretty much everyday) and it's great. That feeling I get when the band launches into the last solo of Comfortably Numb - and when I play it in its entirety, and then some - is pretty inexplicable. I really wish we could play it in the upcoming competitions, but apparently it isn't 'peppy' enough; like these fucks don't even WANT to listen to anything that sounds good. Freaking commercial clowns. And isn't doing something worthwhile just good enough because it IS worthwhile? Why's everybody so obsessed with winning? I thought it wasn't about winning. I should stop thinking.
  But hey, we're doing another great song. Not as great as Comfortably Numb, though, but great enough for something 'peppy' and something the whole band can have fun playing (and I can show off my guitar chops).
  Ah, yes, speaking of Floyd - i've been listening to them a lot these past few weeks; exactly like I was the weeks before it. There's others too. I'm absolutely in love with both Norah Jones and Radiohead. Pretty varied, I know; one's contemporary jazz, the other's alternative. But hey, they're both great. You ought to listen to them.
  And yes, I've been overdosing on Floyd, Radiohead, and Norah Jones again. As well as Kinematics, Vectors, Stoichiometry, Gas laws, Quadratic Inequations and Trigonometry. Eh.


I went to the birthday party of this girl I know from school. She's awesome. She's bengali too, and we're like family now. Her birthday party was awesome, I loved it; and even though I had to study Vectors for two hours right after I came back from there (at 10.30), I don't regret going there one bit.
  There was a surprise gift her family'd planned for her. It was so sweet I could almost feel my heart melt away even though it wasn't for me. Okay, uh, that was abstract. But you wouldn't know - you weren't there. And if you were, you know just what I'm talking about.
  Her elder brother's really awesome too. He's a graphic designer. How cool are graphic designers? They're epic, right?
  He approached me, and we talked for a bit. He told me I didn't look I was happy with my life. So I told him I wasn't. *happy smiley*
  He then asked me what stream I'd taken, and when I said science, he said in a jiffy, 'Dude, you're screwed!'
  That's what I like about being a science student - our plight is universally acknowledged. That's more than what you can say about the other streams; the students could literally be working their asses off, but who'd believe that? Not me.
  
Ah, yes, science.
  So there was this really pretty chick who'd come to the party. I mean, yeah, pretty. In a totally nonsexual way. You can just say chicks are pretty right? That never was a crime. Besides, I didn't stare at her obnoxiously, neither did I incessantly ogle at her with drool dripping from my mouth; so I'd go so far as to say I didn't act in an objectionable manner.
  So yes, this girl says something about not studying law because she really likes Physics and Chemistry. What shit was that? A girl that pretty actually liked science? Of course I didn't believe her! My eyes didn't work in accordance with my ears. There was clearly something wrong. So I confirmed. Yes, she really was a science student. Non-med. Just like me.
  I spent the next ten minutes trying to keep a straight face. I might've failed though, I was thinking too hard.
  So ultimately, I thought, This girl likes science? Eh, I might as well try, too.


  Talk about motivation.

X-x-X

I head this song thrice while typing this. You should DEFINITELY check this out.



She should never have written such beautiful lyrics.
Hurts the heart, a bit.
  
  

Loony Dance

| Posted in , , , | Posted on 10:48 PM

0


We danced,
Under a dim-lit moon,
To the loony tunes;
We are a paltry bunch

The sky called us, instructed,
We refused
It is unlike us to think;
We are our impulses' slaves 

The worldly shackles ensconced, 
Yet we refused to halt;
The dance went on,
Every beat, every swing,
Every pulse

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